The relationship between resting heart rate and all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality.
OBJECTIVE
The association between resting heart rate and changes in heart rate with all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality was studied among 1827 men and 2929 women, aged 40-80 years, followed for 12 years.


RESULTS
After adjustment for initial age, serum cholesterol, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, smoking and diabetes, the all-cause mortality hazard ratio was 1.7 (95% confidence interval 1.4-2.2) for heart rate increments of 20 beats.min-1 for men and 1.4 (confidence interval 1.1-1.8) for women. For cardiovascular mortality, the risk estimates were 1.7 (confidence interval 1.2-2.6) for men and 1.3 (confidence interval 0.9-2.0) for women. We observed no significant association between heart rate and cancer mortality. For women, stronger predictive information for all-cause mortality was provided if changes in heart rate were evident at the 2-year review.


CONCLUSIONS
The resting heart rate is a predictor of mortality, independent of major cardiovascular risk factors.
Mensink
G B
GB
Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany.
Hoffmeister
H
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors